University of Nottingham Canoe Sprint athletes excel at BUCS Championships
The University of Nottingham’s Canoe Sprint team delivered an outstanding performance at the 2025 BUCS Canoe Sprint Championships, which was held in Norwich on the weekend of the 15th and 16th March. The team secured multiple medals across both individual and team events, as Nottingham’s athletes dominated the podium, despite competing against the best student paddlers in the country.
Published 01 Apr 2025
We are all very pleased to have again come home with a good haul of medals and lots of podiums, showing that Nottingham is the strongest kayaking University.
Amy Green, University of Nottingham sports scholar.
On Saturday, the first competition day of the two day event, standout performances included Amy Green’s gold in the Women’s 200m and a Women’s 200m joint relay victory alongside Katie Pocklington - who also finished third in the individual 200m - beating Nottingham team mates Elise Montagna and Mollie Ball who finished second to claim Women’s 200m joint relay silver. Elise Montagna would also finish second in the Women's 5000m, whilst Beth Gill was also victorious in the Women’s C1 event, finishing ahead of Katie Pocklington in third to make it two medals in the event for the green and gold. In the men’s events on the first day of action, Dan Johnson claimed double gold with impressive victories in the Men’s 500m and 5000m, whilst Michael Motha secured first place and a gold medal in the C1 200m. The two also combined in the 200m relay to win silver.
The momentum continued into Sunday's action, where Amy Green and Katie Pocklington dominated the Women’s K2 events, winning both the 200m and 500m races with Elise Montagna and Mollie Ball finishing in third in both events too. The Men’s K2 200m and 500m titles were secured by Nottingham's Dan Johnson and Michael Motha, with Nottingham's Monty Hall and Max Henderson winning bronze in the 500m. In the mixed events, Green teamed up with Motha to win gold in the Mixed K2 500m, while Pocklington and Johnson finished runners-up. Individually, Dan Johnson took home silvers in the K1 200m and C1 500m, with the latter event resulting in a Nottingham one-two with Michael Motha winning gold. This mirrored the Women's C1 500m as Nottingham took to the two top spots of the podium with Beth Gill taking gold ahead of Katie Pocklington in second.
The efforts of University of Nottingham athletes across the weekend resulted in a massive medal haul consisting of 13 gold medals, 9 silvers, and 3 bronze, and also meant that Nottingham was crowned university Canoe Sprint overall team champions for 2025.
Reflecting on the magnificent success of the weekend, Amy Green expressed pride in the team’s achievements: “We had a smaller girls’ team than last year but still came away with just as many medals. Winning all three crew boat events with Katie was an amazing result, and I was really pleased with my joint win in the 200m against a European champion.” Finn Cadell highlighted the men’s team’s strength, adding: “It was a fantastic weekend, with new and returning athletes delivering medal-winning performances, showing once again that Nottingham is the strongest kayaking university.”
We would like to congratulate everyone involved on these performances, as well as the outstanding season that our canoe athletes have had overall - including medals at both the Wild Water and Canoe Slalom events. The team will be ready to build on their impressive form with the focus shifting to Senior Selections in April and U23 Selections in June.
You can find out more about the event here: https://www.bucs.org.uk/events-page/canoe-sprint-championships-2024-25.html
You can also find out more about our Canoe programme here, as well as our scholarship programme here.
Notes for editors
University of Nottingham are the top UK University for team sport, placing 2nd in the overall British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) rankings in the 2023/24 season. For more information on our performance sport offer, including scholarships and support for student athletes, please click here.